Track gold highlights memorable spring at Norwin

By: Bill Beckner Jr.
Saturday, June 21, 2025 | 11:01 AM

Purchase Photo Options

Purchase Photo Options

Previous Next

Norwin will remember the 2025 spring sports season for its impressive wins, highlight performances and gold medals.

There was plenty to talk about at year-end banquets.

Track and field was the standard bearer after a banner season.

The boys and girls teams won WPIAL Class 3A championships, the boys celebrating a title for the first time since 1977 and the girls for the first time since 2009.

A plethora of talent carried the Knights, who also produced a WPIAL individual champion in Ryan Schiller, who won the Class 3A 110-meter hurdles.

Runner-up finishers were Brandi Brozeski (triple jump, 100 hurdles) and Annie Czajkowski (1,600, 3,200), while Daniel Maddock (200), Melani Schmidt (400, 200) and the boys’ 400 relay all placed third.

At the PIAA championships, Schiller took second in the 110s while Annie Czajkowski took fifth in the 3,200-meter run.

Norwin’s track and field athletes broke 11 school records this spring, and 12 athletes will continue competing in college, including six at the Division I level.

Other highlights:

• The Knights baseball team also made a deep run in the postseason, reaching the WPIAL Class 6A championship game before finishing second to Seneca Valley.

Nate Silberman and Tristyn Tavares had hits in the WPIAL final, and Ethan Culbertson gave up just four hits in six innings a 1-0 loss to the Raiders.

Norwin, the No. 4 seed, beat Butler, 5-4 in nine innings, in the quarterfinals. The Knights defeated Hempfield, 7-4, in the semifinals.

With only the WPAL champion advancing to the PIAA playoffs in 6A, Norwin had to settle for a 14-9 season, coach Craig Spisak’s third with the team.

Nine seniors will leave the program, including Ben Geissler, Brayden Wardzinski, Culbertson, Silberman, Jake Sincak and others.

• The Norwin softball team reached the WPIAL 6A semifinals.

The Knights finished 10-12 with a team that will lose three seniors in Izzy Deering, Rachel Minteer and Kendall Dudley.

Top returning players will include Maddie Kugler, Diem Wardzinski, Abbie Telli, Miley Harrison, Addison Grimes and Makenna Black.

• Girls lacrosse made a surprising run to the WPIAL 3A quarterfinals.

The 12th-seeded Knights upset No. 5 Fox Chapel in overtime in the first round, 11-10.

They fell to No. 4 Moon in the quarterfinals, 13-7.

Bill Beckner Jr. is a TribLive reporter covering local sports in Westmoreland County. He can be reached at bbeckner@triblive.com.

Tags: Norwin